Carney sees 2014 as a 'year of action'

1/26/14 10:31 AM EST

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Sunday that 2014 will be a “year of action” for the president.

Making his first appearance on a Sunday show as press secretary, Carney previewed President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, dismissing criticisms that the objectives laid out in last year’s address were never realized.

“What we saw last year in 2013 was a Washington that did not deliver for the American people,” Carney said on ABC's "This Week." “The president sees this as a year of action, to work with Congress where he can and to bypass Congress where necessary. To lift folks who want to come up into the middle class.”

Carney blamed Congress for some of the failures of 2013 but expressed optimism for this year, at least on the issue of immigration reform.

"Those were calls for action that involved Congress,” Carney said of last year’s State of the Union themes. “The president's very disappointed that the Senate failed to heed the will of the vast majority of the American people when it came to expanding background checks [on gun purchases]. On immigration reform, we're actually optimistic that 2014 will be the year that Congress delivers to the president's desk a bipartisan compromise immigration reform bill.”